1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a presentation apparatus and a presentation control method that allows a presentation, wherein an application is employed that does not possess a presentation function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Proliferation of personal computers in recent years has led to digitization of a variety of office administrative tasks, a trend that is extending from paper-based operations to the conference room. A prominent example thereof is a presentation apparatus, essentially a digital whiteboard.
The presentation apparatus performs a presentation by operating in a window that an application provides (application window), and performs an annotation in the application window or elsewhere. Not all applications possess the annotation function, however. Consequently, a technology is called for that offers the annotation function to an application that does not feature the annotation function, thus adding a presentation function to a wide range of applications.
Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 06-124183 (hereinafter “Cited Reference 1”) proposes a presentation apparatus that overlays a transparent window over a window that is displayed by an application, and performs an annotation therein. Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 10-171590 (hereinafter “Cited Reference 2”) proposes a presentation apparatus that performs a screen capture of a desired image that is displayed by an application as a bitmap, and performs the annotation as a background of the image thus acquired. Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2000-89890 (hereinafter “Cited Reference 3”) proposes a technology that changes a button display in response to whether or not an operation is valid.
The presentation apparatuses in question possess two operating modes. One is an application mode that performs an operation of the application, and the other is a presentation mode that performs an annotation in such as an application window. Given, however, that the presentation apparatuses according to the foregoing technologies do not differentiate in a screen display between the application mode and the presentation mode, it is difficult to distinguish the operation mode based on the screen display alone.
For example, if a button is attached to the application window, the appearance of the button will not change, even if the transparent window is overlaid on the application window, per the Cited Reference 1, or if a screen capture of the application window is performed, per the Cited Reference 2, leading to mistakenly identifying the presentation mode as the application mode, and thus, causing a user to depress the button in the application mode, even though the presentation mode is the currently active mode.
If a user personally builds the application to be used for presentation, it is possible to apply the technique disclosed in the Cited Reference 3 to change the appearance of the button in response to whether or not the operation mode is the presentation mode or the application mode. Given, however, that the application that is used in the presentation will vary from user to user, it is not possible to restrict the application to which the technology is to be applied.